Chris Packham feared for family after arson attack. (Image: ITV)
Criminals set his Land Rover ablaze shortly after midnight. The fire spread to the gate of his New Forest house. Luckily, his partner and step-daughter were elsewhere.
Publicising Big Cat Week on TV channel Nat Geo WILD, Chris said: “The more they hurt me, the harder I will try to change their minds. They’ve just poured fuel on the fire.”
He would not comment on why the attackers were targeting him specifically, or what the issue might be, but he believed they were local to him in Hampshire. Police continue to investigate.
A picture of a suspect has been released.
The serious attack came a day before he delivered a petition to Buckingham Palace, calling on the Royal Family to conserve nature on their estates and reintroduce animals such as beaver and wild boar.
Chris said: “The incident has not changed my thinking in any way, not at all.
“Since that’s happened I’ve not worked twice as hard, not three or four times as hard, but 10 times harder to address the issues that the likely perpetrators of this crime are upset about. And that’s the way it works. I’m going to keep trying harder to get them to change their minds. It’s a crude analogy but all they did was pour fuel on the fire.
Packham’s Landrover was set ablaze in the attack. (Image: Collect)
“It’s just encouraged me to be more and more determined and dogged in my cause.”
Packham has spoken previously about “internet trolls who fill my timeline with hate”.
On the investigation, he added: “The Hampshire police have been brilliant, they always are, and they are still pursuing lines of inquiry.
“We both have suspicions about which community is involved here.”
His family – partner Charlotte, and stepdaughter Megan McCubbin, his BBC Winterwatch co-presenter – “are fine”, and are “very supportive though not as robust as me”.
He said: “Maybe they get a bit more angry about it than me, but I don’t waste too much time doing that. I certainly don’t waste any time hating anyone. I want to make positive changes as quickly as possible.”
The wildlife expert attended a Wild Card campaign petition at Buckingham Palace the day after. (Image: Jonathan Brady/PA Wire/PA Images)
But he added: “I’ll probably be angry when I pay the bill for the new gate.”
One of his wider concerns is the threat to wild cats, such as leopards, which he is showcasing again in Big Cat Week.
“It’s an opportunity to join a festival, it’s not a one-off gig. It gives us the opportunity to engage and worship a fascinating, endangered group of animals.
“Where they filmed, in Thailand for instance, gives us the chance to get under their skin.
“Nat Geo, with its Big Cat initiative, also supports research into these areas, supporting and conserving these great animals. So the programmes are not only entertaining, they empower too, because we can be part of the solution by supporting that initiative. Ultimately, if you watch them, you come away as amazed by the behaviours as we were.”
Packham also makes a plea for a return to “ecotourism”, post-pandemic, which is often criticised as being un-environmental.
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“When it comes to these cats mentioned in Big Cat Week, for those in the UK, how many people have travelled overseas recently, putting money into local economies through ecotourism and those people and animals? No one.
“Ecotourism has taken a significant hit and we have significant worries about the impact of that.
“Things like tigers and gorillas, the reason they probably persist is they have an economic value to that community. The lack of ecotourism is something we have to address. We must strike a balance between that and our carbon footprint.”
He added: “The ecotourism community doesn’t really want to talk about it, but we have to reconcile that to do that we carry a carbon footprint with us.
“If we completely pull out, these communities will fall apart, habitats will disappear and turn into farmland, or it will be built on, and the animals poached or eaten. They have to face the facts that either you or I, or people like us, will want to visit them.
“In the meantime, we need to try to maintain these communities while we look at not flying back and forth to those countries, with all the associated carbon costs.
“I used to lead tours around the world. I don’t do it anymore, the world has changed. There needs to be a discussion about it.”
One film shows the behaviour of the endangered Thai fishing cat, known as a “tiger cat”, which wrestles spectacularly with its catch.
Chris suggested there are even echoes of his great footballing hero, striker Matt Le Tissier.
“I’m a Southampton supporter and Le Tissier played there during the time I was watching football.
“I remember some of his goals. There was one remarkable goal – he flicked it over his head and sort of dawdled around someone, and then he launched it up over the goalkeeper and into the top of the net. It was a moment of absolute magic. I’ll never forget it. And the parallel for me is that fishing cat.
“You just can’t believe it when you see it. It will stick with me as much as Le Tissier’s goal.”
- Big Cat Week, Nat Geo WILD, from Monday, February 7
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